How often do you clean your ceiling fans?

[ChristyMarie]

I just cleaned mine yesterday for the first time since I got rid of my maid....eh, 3 months ago? YIKES! Clearly this needs to be done often. But it is a royal PITA - especially for 2 where I need to get out the super extender pole to reach them.

How often do you need to do it to keep them from being gross? We run them all the time.

[Drummer's Wife]

I know I don't clean them often enough. Usually before we have houseguests, but rarely otherwise. We have 8 ceiling fans now that I think about it. But yeah, my reasoning is that it's just a big PITA to get to them. I do sometimes stick the vacuum up there (with a small brush attachment), but that doesn't really clean them too well.

[clutterwarrior]

Makes me glad we don't have any ceiling fans.

[dachshundqueen]

When I turn them off and can see dust on the blades.

I cleaned the on in the master tonight but nearly fell off the chair doing so , therefore DH gets to finish the other 4 in the house tomorrow.

Liz

[echospiritwarrior]

I clean other people's (as a hired housekeeper) every two weeks which seems to keep up with it pretty well. It really does depend on how much they are run. You could certainly get away with every few months for ones that aren't run.

[chely7425]

We run ours constantly but I dust them whenever my MM chore list tells me to dust a room that has one. We have one in the dining room, one in the living/family room and one in our bedroom, so they get dusted when those rooms get dusted.

[Ruthiegirl]

Uhhhhhhh....when they start throwing off dust clumps.

[Ygle]

weird, I've only dusted mine once, I know that's bad I just never ever think about it for some reason! We just have one in the bedroom which I am otherwise especially vigilant about dusting and cleaning because the hubby and my youngest (who is still sleeping with us) are both highly allergic to dust mites. The only reason I cleaned it the one time was because it was broken and we were fixing it and that's when the hubby said, "have you ever cleaned this thing?"... erhhh.... uhh, it's supposed to be cleaned, who knew? Anyways I had to use a wet rag and elbow grease because the dust was more like a paint by then, I think we had it eight years at the time?

The weird part though is that I completely forgot about it again until seeing this post so I went and checked and it seems fine and it's been a little over a year since we fixed it!

[infraread]

Ugh, not often enough!
I cleaned mine earlier this week and was horrified at the amount of dust that was on top of the blades.

[ChristyMarie]

Originally Posted by Ruthiegirl

Uhhhhhhh....when they start throwing off dust clumps.

Um, yeah, that was what clued me in that it needed to be done.

I think of baseboards and blinds and lighting fixtures, just never thought to do the fans. DOH!

[Denvergirlie]

Maybe once ever year or every other year?

Mine don't really get dirty, which is odd as all winter long we heat strictly with wood, so do have lots of dust that builds up on surfaces, but the fans just are not dirty, so i don't clean them until they are.

[sunnysandiegan]

I don't know how often I do it, but I do it whenever I dust a room. I tend to work a room clockwise and spiral around towards the center or outwards from the center. So, the ceiling fan gets done first or last in the master bedroom, kitchen, living room, and family office. Three of them are cleaned super fast and easy with two feather dusters from FLYlady (these type actually WORK!).... I use the bigger one on top and the smaller one on bottom and run the dusters simultaneously along each blade, after running the big one all the way around the fixture part above and below the fan blades. The kitchen one gets a bit more than dusty and requires a damp rag and sometimes a degreaser. I have to climb up on a chair to clean this one properly. I work that type of cleaning in probably every third or fourth time I do the easy way.

[rhiOrion]

I'm not sure I've ever dusted a ceiling fan. Maybe when I was really young.

But, I haven't lived in one place (at least one with ceiling fans) for more than one year since I left for college. So... I can say, less than once a year!